Sharon Ransom thought knew everything there was to know about strokes.

“I thought I couldn’t learn anything else,” said Ransom, a Teamsters Local 673 Trustee in West Chicago. “My mother had a stroke a year and a half ago. I thought I knew it all.”

But on November 5, 2011, Ransom learned something new during the Second Annual Women’s Seminar sponsored by Teamsters Joint Council 25’s Women’s Committee. Jacqueline Boone, a registered nurse with Chicago’s Ruth M. Rothstein CORE Medical Center, led more than 150 Teamsters through a summary of dangerous medical conditions that commonly affect women. One focus was stroke—how to prevent it, how to recognize it and how to react to it.

“She said one of the ways to tell if someone has just had a stroke is to ask them to smile,” said Ransom. “If their smile is crooked or if they just can’t do it, that’s a good sign that something is just not right.”

Following the seminar—a six-hour workshop tackling issues important to Teamster women—Ransom found her boyfriend of 12 years, Tony Pruitt, a fellow member of Local 673, sitting immobile at home. The night before, the couple went out for dinner and drinks. A run-in with old friends led to a longer night than either of them expected, forcing Ransom straight to bed when they returned home. But Pruitt stayed up, watching television from a recliner in the living room.

The next morning Ransom woke to find Pruitt asleep in his chair, which is exactly where he remained when she returned home that evening.

“Something just didn’t sit right,” said Ransom. “In the morning, I could attribute it to our late night out, but not after that much time. So I went into the bedroom, changed my clothes, took a good, hard look at Tony and asked him one question.

“‘Can you smile for me?’

Pruitt couldn’t do it. “He simply couldn’t smile.”

Thanks to the women’s health training she’d received that afternoon, the 14-year Teamster and steward for Frito-Lay recognized the symptoms of a stroke and rushed Pruitt to the emergency room. Doctors would later inform her that Pruitt, a 28-year Teamster at Frito-Lay, had indeed suffered a stroke within four to six hours of her discovery.

“If I had not been there that day and learned the signs of a stroke, I may not have done anything,” said Ransom. “Instead I was able to recognize what was really happening. He is alive because of Joint Council 25. He has no paralysis, no brain damage, nothing.”

John T. Coli, President of Joint Council 25, formed its Women’s Committee in 2010 to bring renewed focus to the role and potential of Teamster women. Each month, members from the Joint Council’s 20 affiliated locals organize events with rank-and-file members, support local charities, assemble care packages and encourage participation in rallies and organizing campaigns.

“The numbers speak for themselves; women now make up nearly half of the Teamsters Union,” said Coli. “Women have an unparalleled impact on the strike line, during contract negotiations, even on membership meetings. The more women get involved, the stronger our union becomes.”

According to Coli, the committee’s now annual Women’s Seminar is just a stepping-stone to a bigger and brighter future for Teamster women in Chicago.

“What the Women’s Committee has already accomplished is evidence of our far our members will take this,” Coli said. “I have all the faith in the world that Teamster women will continue to succeed and surprise us beyond our biggest expectations. Fundraisers, training opportunities, educational workshops—these are simply the beginning.”

For Ransom and Pruitt, just one Teamster training ensured it wasn’t the end.

“Spending my day at that training, giving up my time so Joint Council 25 could give me this information, it paid off big time,” said Ransom. “For two Teamsters.”

President Paul Hawkins displays a leaflet handed out at Northwestern football games on November 12 and November 26. The leaflet created by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Strategic Campaign Department was distributed by Teamsters at both games. The leaflet outlines the relationship between Madison Dearborn and a member of the Northwestern Board of Trustees.

Teamsters Protest Madison Dearborn

TEAMSTERS PROTEST MADISON DEARBORN'S

WAR ON WORKERS

Teamsters, Allies Say Private Equity Firm Is 'Bad for Chicago'

(CHICAGO) - More than 100 members of the Teamsters Union, UNITE HERE, Occupy Chicago and religious and community supporters rallied in downtown Chicago today to protest private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners' bad values and its disregard for American workers.

Madison Dearborn, based in Chicago, owns the medical and scientific product company VVVR International, which has denied decent working conditions to Chicago-area workers represented by Teamsters Local 673. VVVR has refused to reach an agreement with the workers at VVVR's Batavia warehouse after more than five years of negotiations.

"VWR International has many longtime employees but has little respect for them," said Roger Kohler, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 673 in Chicago, "Their Batavia facility is one of the most efficient and profitable locations, but basic job security remains an issue for these senior employees, Madison Dearborn needs to tell VWR to step up and provide good working conditions and job security to workers who have been good, loyal and longtime employees."

"VVVR has axed profit sharing, frozen pensions and increased health care costs," said a VVVR employee at the rally, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. "Most employees have had no pay increases for six years, yet the company has continued to make profits year after year."

In California, VVVR is planning to throw nearly 200 longtime, loyal workers on to the street by closing a warehouse In Brisbane, which will devastate the local economy, the community and the longtime workers and their families who have supported VVVR for more than 50 years.

"VVVR wants to destroy good, middle-class jobs in Brisbane and then hire workers at low wages in Visalia. California taxpayers should not subsidize the destruction of good jobs by Chicago-based private equity giant Madison Dearborn," said Rome Aloise, President of Teamsters Joint Council 7 and also a Western Region Vice President.

John Thomas, a 15-year employee at VVVR in Brisbane, CA, said "The Madison Dearborn economic model is destroying the lives of too many Americans. My job is going to become a low-wage job somewhere else in California, at taxpayer expense. Madison Dearborn and the rest of the top one percent are destroying families just to Siphon a few more dollars their way."

Madison Dearborn also owns TransUnion, a company that sells credit reports to employers, allowing them to discriminate in their hiring practices, "I have bad credit because someone stole my identity, But that doesn't make me a bad employee," said Jackie Amoah, a UNITE HERE member, "I have been on my job for 10 years and I haven't had a single complaint. That is why I'm standing with my brothers and Sisters, demanding that TransUnion and Madison Dearborn stop selling people's credit reports to employers.,"

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents more than 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, Visit www.teamster.org for more information.